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Monday, December 5, 2016

Glendale, Huns, Utah In New Major Rugby Championship

Several of the top teams from Texas and the Rocky Mountains are coming together to form the Major Rugby Championship to play this spring. The competition will include the Glendale Raptors, Austin Huns, Griffins from Texas, New Orleans, and Rugby Utah. Like the Cal Cup the league is in part reaction to the PRP moving to a fall schedule. For teams like the Glendale Raptors that left them with a big hole in their schedule that will now be filled with teams taking a step up to a new competition. This is a one off competition to help set up for the return of the PRP.

For the Huns and the Griffins it is a part of their move to professionalization. New Orleans have been one of the top club teams in the country for while although they have finished second to the Austin Blacks and Dallas Reds the last few years. There was some talk of including them in the ARP but this will now have them getting elite competition closer to home.

Take the jump to read more.The addition of Rugby Utah will bring a new level of competition to the Beehive State. When the Utah Premier Division was announced a few months back it was mentioned that the league would serve as a selection vehicle for an elite side to play in a competition to be named. Now we know that competition. That could mean the likes of Don Pati could be turning out for the side.

The Denver Barbarians, like the Santa Monica Dolphins in the Cal Cup, are taking a break until the fall PRP season.

According to Glendale Director of Rugby the club is planning on moving on without their PRO Rugby players. "We also were aware that PRO had communicated verbally to players from Glendale that they would not allow them to play for Glendale so we would not have had our players available had moved to a fall schedule."

Glendale are also planning on home and away matches with Life West and BYU and possibly will have two additional matches in April. The Huns will be playing other Red River teams as part of their DI commitment. They are also scheduled to play the Mexican National Team.

The season will start the very last week of January and run through May with a grand final at Infinity Park on June 3rd. Semi-finals will be held the last two weekends in May. It appears that four of the five teams will make the post-season. Each team will play home and away matches for 8 league matches.